The Five Honored Stars carefully took note of everything. The green light couldn’t be considered fast but nor could it be considered slow. When the green light pervaded the mouth of the Lou Clan’s crane, though… it actually started to fall apart in less than three seconds!

“How is this possible?!” One of the Five Honored Stars rushed over a step. “These things don’t have one trace of qi! This green light almost doesn’t have any qi at all! How could…”

The five old men stood tall on the crown of the immortal crane’s head.

The distance from the crane’s beak to the crown of its head was only a hundred-somewhat meters. His leap away from the green light was less than twenty.

He didn’t even finish speaking.

And that was because in everyone’s eyes, this member of the Five Honored Stars fell off the Sky Universe Palace in almost an instant, his footing at an angle! He didn’t even use a divine ability, or furthermore even fly in the air!

The event was too sudden! Practically no one could imagine it!

“Old Four!” An old man’s gaze flickered, and he cried out alarm, intending to storm down and save his comrade. Just as his foot moved, however, a hand stiffly barred his path.

“Move back…” the head of the Five Honored Stars stammered. As if he was overlooking a great enemy, he stared at the green tide in the sky. “This thing… is odd… Do not, absolutely do not approach it no matter what…”

The other three Honored Stars gritted their teeth. “Then… what about the other cultivators?”

“Notify all cultivators… to abandon the stronghold! Everyone is to get to the ground! As for those who can’t…” the old man clenched his teeth and said, “All relies on fate.”

They were unaware that everything a hundred meters underneath Nanzhou had now been exterminated! Regardless of insect or animal… not even microorganisms existed!

The area had already become one of King Yama’s hells! It wasn’t until the poison reached 200 to 300 meters underground that the blackness could no longer encroach any further. It was then that the situation finally became somewhat better.

Titanspirit and Ancientpine simply had no time to examine anything else. Their gazes were firmly nailed into Xu Yangyi. Suddenly, Ancientpine’s brows stirred, and he took a deep breath. “Could it be… that I was mistaken?”

“No…” Titanspirit’s voice also carried disbelief. “He moved… Just now, his finger moved!” Before he even finished speaking, Xu Yangyi’s finger slightly moved again as if to confirm their words.

“This… How is this possible?” Elsewhere, Hiddenscent had already flown up a thousand meters into the air. She dared not believe her eyes. “His throat’s been ripped apart. How could he have not died?”

Xu Yangyi was none the wiser.

His consciousness was struggling with every fiber of his being, struggling with all his might as it sunk down. Yet at this time, he felt his waist tighten again!

“Life Hangs By A Thread…” That majestic voice echoed in the dark and lonely space. This thread was forcibly hanging onto his life.

“This is the second time…” His gaze focused on the cocoon. “This… is the second time he’s saved me…”

His present state was rather bizarre. His heart was like still water, calm without a ripple. As if nothing at all was related to him. Like he had transcended everything concerning the secular world. Even if he wanted to be excited, he couldn’t manage it. All emotions deserted him far away.

Nonetheless, this time was different than last time.

At some unknown time, the cocoon had already turned completely red, and now… in the wake of faint cracking noises, the top of it cracked inch by inch.

Something inside… was on the cusp of hatching out…

However, no qi was felt, not even the slightest trace. In spite of this, a small hole had already broke open at the top of the cocoon.

Xu Yangyi didn’t know how much time had passed. Perhaps it was several minutes or maybe several hours. The gentle sound of flapping wings softly rang out.

Thruuummm… The sound was somewhat like a motor. A few seconds later, a pair of black wings stood out from the cocoon. Thruuummm… Thruuummm… The monotonous sound of flapping wings echoed throughout space. Another several seconds passed, and a brittle crackling noise echoed! A moth as big as him leaped out from the cocoon!

“That’s!” Just as he got a clean look at the moth, he suddenly felt all his emotions return to his body. However, the first emotion to bubble up was anger, killing intent. These feelings surged up like a tide! They were fundamentally unstoppable!

The creature was a black butterfly. But on its pair of wings, there were two patterns of golden eyes!

Godseal Spark!

“That’s a Godseal Spark…” Xu Yangyi instantly recalled the information he hadn’t finished reading back then and the strange power outage. He only remembered the Godseal Spark’s characteristics.

What was a Godseal Spark?

What did it want to do?

No one knew, though, that a butterfly of a Godseal Spark was now directly facing him! Moreover, the butterfly had actually even saved him twice!

“Son of a bitch…” Drop by drop, the already-icy blood in his body began to surge and roil hotly. In this twinkling, the killing intent in his heart disregarded his self-preservation. Both his fists were clenched tightly, and he pulled the thread hanging onto him and forcibly climbed up.

Yet now, the butterfly saw him as well. Although it was incapable of speech, it was evidently dazed.

As if it was in the grip of amazement, like it was wondering why he was still alive.

In the next second, the butterfly unleashed a rocketing screech!

“SCREEECH!!!”

The noise was terribly piercing. In the next second, the butterfly was storming towards Xu Yangyi!

Flap… Wings that were three to four meters long unfolded. On its sizeable belly, an insect-like stinger shockingly appeared and aimed straight at Xu Yangyi’s dantian!

In this splinter of time, a deadly sensation of mortal crisis erupted in Xu Yangyi’s mind.

His mind seemed to spring up with a few memories, memories that had existed for an unknown number of years. However, this butterfly’s silhouette was in each and every memory. It was a fledgeling, but in his memories it could be said to be so great that it concealed both heaven and earth!

It seemed to exist since the unification of the first dynasty… so far as to the further-distant Spring and Autumn Period… [1]

It flew through each and every single person’s dreams. Since it didn’t exist in reality it was nameless. But later on, it mysteriously gained one. It was called “Zhuang Zhou”. [2]

Xu Yangyi’s brows suddenly furrowed because what appeared the most in his memories… was the word “engulf”!

Originally, this butterfly should’ve engulfed him without the slightest resistance, at the moment of its appearance… It seemed… that the purpose his existence was to offer sustenance to this creature. Thus, the butterfly appeared to be startled. In any case, though, it was a mystery why the butterfly hadn’t devoured him. Perhaps it wasn’t capable of doing so.

Realization suddenly dawned on Xu Yangyi regarding the current situation.

Life Hangs By A Thread was hanging onto his spiritual sense!

A cultivator’s destruction was only the destruction of the spiritual sense. And the present him was in a state of spiritual sense! In this state—spiritual force unable to be cycled—he was almost taken advantage of!

Zing! In the next second, the strange butterfly thrust its stinger into his dantian with an incomprehensible speed. In a wink, incredibly vivid spiritual sense, vigorous like a dragon and robust like a tiger, seemingly divided his body into two halves! The insect quickly advanced on his own spiritual sense!

Forced possession!

The light of Xu Yangyi’s eyes soon became frosty. This… was a forced possession! This butterfly wanted to forcibly possess him!

No… Zhuang Zhou… Zhuang Zhou! Had it been Zhuangzi dreaming of the butterfly, or had the butterfly dreamt of Zhuangzi?! [3]

Yes… indeed! Zhuang Zhou… had been forcibly possessed. He, or perhaps it… was no longer Zhuang Zhou after his dream! Instead… it was a Godseal Spark!

“So that’s how it is…” His face held no fear, but rather exposed a kind of icy-cold and fiery-hot killing intent.

The Godseal Spark… No wonder it had always been hanging onto him. Not to prevent his death, but because the creature couldn’t possess him before it hatched!

On the most base level… it was no rescuing benefactor, but a murderous fiend. Of all his present information, the Godseal Spark was his one and only clue.

Xu Yangyi was not afraid of forced possession. He had investigated in the past that a stronger cultivator and the spiritual sense attempting a possession were both at equal strength. Furthermore… if the forced possession succeeded, he would be able to seize the butterfly’s spiritual sense! The other’s memories were also inside it!

As he mused this far, he didn’t have a reason to be afraid! There was no way he wanted to back down, either!

What about the outside world? He no longer cared. Against the excitedly buzzing Zhuang Zhou facing him, he didn’t inch away at all. Instead, he gritted his teeth and unleashed his total spiritual sense, with a blade-like gaze!

Come on… in a true battle of spiritual sense, only one of us is coming out of this alive!

“It’s moved… It’s moved!” At the bottom of Danxia Temple, Fahai’s hand was faintly trembling. The Wolfbane… the Wolfbane! This was a name eternal throughout the ages! If it truly emerged into the modern world, what awe and alarm would it draw?

Xiaoqing said nothing. What came next… was the duel between the eternal remnant that was a Godseal Spark and an ancient Greater Demon. Who would win… Who would gain control over the body…

She sighed quietly, “A great battle of the world is soon to come…”

“Together, a Godseal Spark and the Wolfbane rise. The 1,400 years this time… will undoubtedly not be simple…”

In the outside world… Xu Yangyi was quiet and motionless, floating in the air like a corpse. Everyone’s gazes burned luminously.

Death-like silence pervaded the air. Everyone looked to the sky. Above was the wave of surging green light, and below was the black earth spreading forth inch after inch.

“What the hell is this damn thing…” Titanspirit clenched his teeth, yet he was even more wary against the black earth that was but a step away. Through his intuition, he knew that even if he was a Core Formation Dao Master… this black earth would invite nothing good.

It was at this time that a boom suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.

The sound of something, a seed, breaking apart.

A sprout budded out from the earth.

Boom…

Boom… Boom…

The sound was similar to footsteps, yet also like a beating heart. This lonesome sound echoed throughout Nanzhou.

Hiddenscent shivered and studied Xu Yangyi who was releasing ripples of green light in the air. In her mind, a voice kept on speaking: Go… complete your final task.

Nevertheless, she dared not move!

This person… was quite fearsome… Her subconscious and intuition were in a constant flux of war between heaven and man. As if the undefiable voice was actually being overturned by her instinctual subconscious. She didn’t take a step forward, but instead looked at the sky with great caution.

She was in such a conundrum… that she couldn’t help but slither back a meter.

BOOM… BOOM… The sound became louder and louder, as if a drum was being hammered in the world.

A burst of wind, so clear and refreshing, blew without the slightest warning. However, the louder the wind blew, it caused the clothes of everyone present to ripple loudly! The agitated clouds in the sky stirred in turmoil!

“This… is his heart beat!” Titanspirit had restrained his Buddhist form early on. With incomparable caution, he studied Xu Yangyi’s corpse that was in the air.

Although their cultivations already stood at the world’s apex, they were still unable see the Godseal Spark in Xu Yangyi’s qi sea. They moreover couldn’t make out the thread that was suspending two worlds.

Up above was a butterfly, its dance at a total halt. Like so, it was oddly frozen in the air.

Below was Xu Yangyi. His left hand was stretched out. He seemed to be petrified, likewise unable to make a single move.

In their spiritual senses… a most savage battle had already begun!

The dream butterfly of Zhuang Zhou versus the Wolfbane!

An eternal Greater Demon versus a Pureblood Demon!

The brutal, gritty combat of spiritual sense was absent of fancy tricks! It was only a pure clash of force!

It depended on one’s ability to endure the pain of spiritual sense being whittled away!

It depended on whoever’s Dao heart was more resolute!

It depended on whoever’s vigor was a level beyond!

Spoiler Meme

1. First dynasty = Qin dynasty (221-207 BCE). Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BCE).

2. Zhuang Zhou… otherwise known as the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (369-286 BCE).

3. This is a pretty famous story. Zhuangzi had a long dream as a butterfly. When he awoke he pondered whether he was himself or the butterfly. I have mentioned this previously